The Gloomy Ghost (9 page)

“Bye, Yip,” I said.

He looked at me one last time and gave a little bark. Ghosts can't understand animals any better than fleshsters—I mean people—can, but I knew what Yip was saying. He was saying “It's okay.” That's all.

And then he was gone.

Ghosts can cry.

But I knew Yip wouldn't want me to stand there and feel sad. I had to save myself, or I'd be drifting up and fading away real soon, too. I ran back to the house and went to my room.

There were a lot of toys on the floor. There were trucks and soldiers and tons of army stuff—even a gas mask that Dad got me. Then I saw something in the corner. I had a bunch of plastic letters. If I could move them, I could spell a message for Sebastian.

I rushed over to the corner. “You dummy,” I said when I remembered that I couldn't spell. How could I tell Sebastian about berries when I couldn't spell
berries
?

But there was berry punch in the fridge! I ran downstairs. This was great. I could look at the carton and see how to spell the word. “Pretty smart,” I said when I reached the kitchen.

I stuck my head right into the refrigerator.

“You dummy,” I said again. It was dark in the fridge. I couldn't see anything. The light only came on when the door was open.

I heard another door open. Sebastian and Rory came in. They went upstairs. I ran ahead of them. I looked at my watch. It was 8:03. In a few minutes, my body would start getting sicker and sicker. In the hall, I could hear the two of them going into Sebastian's room.

What could I use to give them a message? I tried to move one of the plastic letters, but nothing happened. There were too many toys. I liked all of them, but they weren't treasures.

Oh, no. I could feel something funny. It was starting. My body was getting lighter. Just a little, but it was happening. I didn't want to be alone when it happened. Even if they couldn't see me, I wanted to be with people I knew. I ran to Sebastian's room.

Right inside, taped to the wall, I saw something I treasured.

I pressed myself against the poster of Frankenstein's monster. It had to work.

It did.

I grew. I moved inside. Then I stepped away.

I heard a rip as the monster tore free from the poster. I staggered for a step or two. It's not easy walking when you're made of paper.

“Aaaaaaggghhhhh!”

That was Sebastian. He backed up into the corner of his room.

“Eeeeeeeeiiiii!”

That was Norman. He stood up, but then he seemed to freeze.

I took a step toward them. They both screamed again. This wasn't going to work. I had to hope they'd follow me. I turned and walked into the hallway.

“It's mass hysteria or some other form of shared delusion,” Norman said. “Definitely a temporary form of dementia. We're imagining it. Lack of sleep. Yeah. That's it. Stress and lack of sleep. This is not real. There's no cause for panic.”

I looked back at them. Norman was staring at the floor, telling himself in a thousand different ways that he was imagining this. As far as he was concerned, I wasn't real.

Sebastian was staring at me; his eyes were wide, but he didn't look afraid. He looked amazed.

I turned to face him and motioned with my arm.
Follow me,
I thought.
Please follow me
.

If he came, there was a chance. If not, I knew I was out of time.

 

Twenty-three

NOW OR NEVER

Sebastian stepped away from the wall. “It wants us to follow it,” he said.

“You can't follow it!” Norman shouted. “Do you want to know why you can't follow it? Because it isn't real. It can't be real. Therefore, you can't follow it. Just close your eyes until it goes away.”

I walked down the stairs. Everything looked so strange. The floor was far away. I was used to being my own height. Frankenstein's monster was a lot taller. I glanced back. Sebastian stepped out of his room.

I went to the kitchen and tried to open the door. But my paper hand slipped around the knob.

“I got it,” Sebastian said. He reached out and turned the knob for me.

I walked down the steps and shuffled toward the bushes. It's a good thing it wasn't windy—that would have been trouble. I would have been swept away like a kite with a snapped string. I kept looking back to make sure that Sebastian was following me. When I reached the bushes, I leaned over and grabbed at a berry. It wasn't easy with paper fingers, but I got one and managed to pull it off.

I turned back to Sebastian and held out the berry.

“What?” he asked. “I don't understand.”

I held the berry up to my mouth like I was going to eat it.

“Are you crazy?” Sebastian said. “Don't you know red berries are poisonous?”

“
THAT
'
S WHAT I
'
VE BEEN TRYING TO TELL YOU
!” I shouted. Of course, he didn't hear me.

But he heard himself. “Poisonous!” he said again. “I have to call my parents.” He raced back inside.

I stepped out of the poster. It fluttered to the ground behind me. I followed Sebastian and watched while he called. He told them about the berries. By then, Norman had come down from upstairs.

“Rory will be okay now,” Sebastian told him after he hung up. “The doctors are getting him the right medicine. Come on. I want to be there when he wakes up.”

So did I. I had a funny feeling that I should be near my body when I woke up. I followed Sebastian and Norman out the front door.

I was so happy, I didn't even notice the van.

Round and round the mulberry bush …

All of a sudden, something was pulling me. “Yes, I knew it. There was so much spectral energy here,” Teridakian said. He was pointing his ghost grabber at me and cranking the handle. It played that awful music.

I reached for Sebastian. It was no use. My hands went right through his arm. My body was being sucked into Teridakian's machine.

The monkey chased the weasel.…

“Stop!” I shouted. “Please.”

My foot got caught. I was being pulled in. But I felt a pull in another direction. My body, my real body, was trying to pull me back. The doctors were fixing me.

The machine was stronger.

I was more than halfway inside.

Sebastian looked at the van. I guess he read the part about ghost hunters. Then he looked toward me. “Norman, he's got Rory.”

“What?” Norman asked.

The monkey thought 'twas all in fun.…

I was in up to my shoulders. I tried to push myself out, but it was too strong. I knew that as soon as the music reached the word
pop,
I'd be sucked inside for good.

“Stop thinking so much!” Sebastian shouted. He ran up to Teridakian and grabbed the ghost-catching machine.

“Hey!” Teridakian shouted. “Give that back.”

“No way,” Sebastian said. He threw the machine toward Norman. “Get him out. Save him.”

Norman caught me. He looked surprised. I think he usually drops anything that's thrown at him.

“Go!” Sebastian shouted.

Norman ran back inside the house with me while Sebastian blocked Teridakian from following.

“Oh, man,” Norman said. He pulled something out of his pocket. I twisted my head around so I could see what he had. It was a knife—the kind that has a screwdriver and lots of other stuff.

“Hurry,” I said, even though he couldn't hear me. My head felt like it was going to be torn in half. The force pulling at me got stronger and stronger, but I was stuck in the machine.

“Okay, this can't be too hard,” Norman said. He removed a screw and took the cover off. “Yes, I got it,” he said. I could barely see what he was doing, but it looked like he unhooked some wires and then put them back on.

My neck was starting to stretch. I felt like a giraffe. “Hurry!” I shouted.

Sebastian dashed in and slammed the door. Outside, Teridakian was pounding at the door and yelling.

“Did you do it?” Sebastian asked.

“Almost,” Norman said. “I tried to crank it backwards, but it doesn't go that way. So I reversed the wires between the crank and the motor. Whatever it did before, it will do the opposite now.”

My head had stretched so far, I could look down and see the machine in Norman's hands.

“Are you sure?” Sebastian asked.

“No. I'm not sure. I could ask the fellow outside who's trying to break your door, but I doubt he's in the mood to discuss electronics with me at the moment. All I can do is hope.”

I was sure something was about to break. I couldn't stand another second. “Stop talking!”

Norman cranked the handle.

 

Twenty-four

GREAT EXPECTATIONS

Pop goes the weasel.…

As the end of the tune played, I shot out of the machine so fast, I felt like a bullet. I went right through the house and over the neighborhood. I guess my body was pulling real hard.

I zoomed straight through the hospital. As I was flying into my room, I saw Scott in the hallway.

“Hi, Rory,” he called as I flashed by.

“Scott!” I shouted. There was something I had to tell him. Something I'd learned. But there was hardly any time. “Stop expecting—”

I'd just barely said that much when I got pulled back into me. I'd wanted to tell him that he should stop expecting to die. I remembered how he told me he wasn't going to live. But I'd learned that what you expect can change things. Not always, but sometimes.

I was back in me. Everything went away for a while. Then I woke up. Mom and Dad and everyone was there. They were all hugging me and crying, except Sebastian, who was pretending not to cry.

“That was you in the poster, right?” Sebastian whispered to me.

“Yeah.”

He sighed. “Phew. That's a relief.”

I guess he was glad it wasn't some other ghost. Mom said we'd talk about the television later. That was going to be some talk. But I didn't mind. Whatever my punishment was, I could take it.

Norman was there, too. “Thanks,” I said to him when my parents weren't listening.

“Any time,” he said. “I like a challenge.”

“What about Teridakian?” I asked him. “What happened after I left?”

Norman grinned. “I gave him back his machine and he drove off. I didn't tell him the wires were reversed. He'll never catch another ghost.”

The doctor said I could go home. He gave me a lecture about not eating strange berries. I promised him I wouldn't ever do that again. I got dressed. Then I looked at the flowers on the table next to the bed.

“I needed to cheer up the way the room looked,” Mom said. “I bought them last evening. But I forgot to put them in water. I guess they died.”

“That's okay,” I said. “They're still nice.” I grabbed the flowers.

They made me ride in a wheelchair. They don't like to let people walk out of a hospital. I don't understand that. But as we were going down the hall, I heard something terrible. I told the nurse to stop walking.

I looked into the room we were passing. It was Scott's room. His mom and dad were crying. I guess he hadn't understood my message. As good as I felt for myself, I felt terrible for Scott.

His mother sobbed again, then said, “It's a miracle.”

I realized she was crying because she was so happy. Adults do that. She was sobbing and holding on to Scott. He was sitting up.

“The doctor said you'll be fine now,” Scott's dad said. “No more hospitals.”

Scott lifted his head from his mother's shoulder. He smiled at me and said, “Hi, Rory.”

“Hi, Scott,” I said. “You got better.”

“I expected to,” he said.

“Do you know him?” Mom asked as they rolled me down the hall.

“We've met,” I told her.